All regions of India will be connected through Vande Bharat trains as envisaged by PM -Ashwini Vaishnaw

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Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Railways visits ICF & inspects Vande Bharat Coaches under production

Minister visits Dr MGR Central and inspects One Station One Product Stall

Railway Minister conducts window trailing inspection in a special train from Chennai-Bengaluru

Chennai: Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Railways, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology visited ICF on Friday, 20.05.2022 and inspected the Vande Bharat Exp. coaches under production at the LHB shed of Furnishing Factory, ICF.

First two prototype rakes are planned to be turned out by Aug, 2022. Indian Railways is committed to roll out 75 Vande Bharat rakes by August 2023.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw flagged off the 12000th LHB AC-II Tier Coach at Furnishing factory, in the presence of A.K.Agarwal, General Manager, ICF, B.G. Mallya, General Manager, Southern Railway, S.Srinivas, Principal Chief Mechnical Engineer, ICF, P.U.K. Reddy, Chief Administrative Officer, ICF and other officers and staff of ICF.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw flagged off the 12000th LHB coach at ICF.

This is a great milestone in the history of Indian Railways and a bench mark in modernisation of passenger train services. ICF is the first production unit of Indian Railways to achieve such a benchmark in the production of LHB coaches.

Interacting with mediapersons at ICF, the Minister stated, “Vande Bharat Express is a proud project for Indian Railways and I congratulate the Team ICF for the design and development of these coaches which is of world class.”

“All regions of India will be connected through Vande Bharat Express trains as envisaged by the Hon’ble Prime Minister which is a dream coming true for all of us.” He said.

Later in the morning, Railway Minister visited Dr MGR Chennai Central and inspected the “One Station One Product” Kanchipuram Silk Saree Stall.

He interacted with members of trade union before boarding a special train to conduct window trailing inspection from Chennai to Bengaluru.

Speech by Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Railways, during his interaction with media at ICF, Chennai

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision is to transform Indian Railways to give better passenger experience, higher safety, with more passenger capacity.

All stations in Indian Railways are being re-developed. 50 stations have already been undergoing the process.

In Tamil Nadu, five stations including Chennai Egmore, Madurai, Kanyakumari, Rameshwaram and Katpadi have been shortlisted under the project.

Rs.3685 crores have been allotted for railway projects in Tamil Nadu in the current budget. Under PM Gati Shakti project, many more developments in the anvil for railways.

Vande Bharat Express is a proud project for Indian Railways and I congratulate the Team ICF for the design and development of these coaches which is of world class. All regions of India will be connected through Vande Bharat Express trains as envisaged by Prime Minister which is a dream coming true for all of us.

As I already informed in the parliament and outside many times, there is no question of privatisation of Railways. Our focus is totally on adaptation of new technologies for the betterment of Indian Railways, such as Kavach Anti- collision safety devices, that will be fitted on Vande Bharat Express coaches as well.

There are many aspects that to be kept in mind for increasing the speed of operation of trains in India, such as trains, tracks, safety and the bridges.
Once these are streamlined, the operations of trains will be done at maximum.

I recommend all Railway Staff working in Tamil Nadu to learn Tamil language for better interaction with rail users in addition to smooth and safe operation of trains. India is a country with many beautiful languages and we need to enjoy the beauty of each and every language.